Reflections from the pastoral ministry of an Evangelical Catholic Priest.

02 January, 2012

Propaganda: Gentle Reader Series - Introduction

I introduce to the blog today what will be a series of posts written by a frequent commentator, 'Martin'. They grow from a discussion that developed between him and 'Paul', another regular contributor here on the subject of homosexuality and the gay agenda. Paul takes the orthodox Christian perspective. Martin is a vocal proponent for the gay cause.

This particular discourse saw Paul make certain claims about the gay culture, claims that he supported by evidence drawn from a website (RenewAmerica.com) which promoted the published findings on the subject by a Dr. Brian W. Clowes, PhD. Martin's keen eye noted this credit and researched Clowes, only to discover that he certainly holds a doctorate from a reputable US school... in Civil Engineering. Clearly, he argued, Clowes qualifications were in a field of study that didn't provide any credible justification for his expertise regarding the issue of homosexuality.

After pointing this out to Paul, he began to write a series of comments, addressed to the 'Gentle Readers' of this blog, in which first he lays out an explanation of the nature and power of propaganda, explaining along the way how Clowes' 'research' in particular, as well as other organizations that promote traditional sexual mores such as RenewAmerica in general (including the Catholic Church in its teachings) are utilizing these deceptive and discredited techniques. Along the way, Martin poses a series of questions/challenges to those of us who are proponents of the traditional position to assess if the foundation upon which we've rooted our convictions are as pure and sensible as we think it is.

I am not saying that I agree with Martin on the greater issues of the morality or appropriateness of the gay culture. I do not. However as the webmaster and host of this blog I take questions he poses seriously. I would rather be wrong on an issue than be right for the wrong reasons. Even a broken watch is right twice a day, but that doesn't mean it's any good at keeping time.

Martin's red flag about the seduction of propaganda merits attention no matter what one believes. For that reason, I asked his permission to package his comments together into this series which I've titled, 'Propaganda:The Gentle Reader Series'. I will post one column for each of the next few days. Feel free to join the debate. Your comments are (as always) welcome 'Where the Rubber Hits the Road'.

4 comments:

"... on the subject of homosexuality and the gay agenda...Martin is a vocal proponent for the gay cause."

I've been following the discussion between Paul and Martin, Tim, and that is NOT how I see Martin's role at all. First off, there is no "gay agenda." And Martin simply proposes that Paul and others of his ilk back of the persection and leave other people alone to live their own lives without being harrassed by the tyrany of someone else's religious "outrage."

Lady Janus: I had Martin give his OK to the series introduction. He didn't have any disagreement with the way I have framed his debate with Paul. I understand though the point you are making about the tyranny etc. That said, it seems self evident that there will always be some sort of law dealing with what's appropriate behavior or not. As a society, we will never get it right. But this series is really dealing with the specifics of 'propaganda' as it relates to the gay rights issue. Your comments will be most appreciated.

"...there will always be some sort of law dealing with what's appropriate behavior..."

There shouldn't be. The law should stick to what's LEGAL, and leave what's "appropriate" to the individuals involved. And what's LEGAL needs to be clearly defined according to direct harm it would do to non-participants.